In retort to abortion ban, lawmaker calls for vasectomies

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — An Alabama lawmaker fed up with her colleagues' attempts to outlaw abortion has filed legislation to require all men over 50 to get vasectomies.

Democratic Rep. Rolanda Hollis said Friday that she introduced the bill to send "the message that men should not be legislating what women do with their bodies."

Alabama lawmakers last year approved a ban on abortion unless the woman's life was in danger. A federal judge blocked the law from taking effect while a legal challenge plays out in court.

"Year after year the majority party continues to introduce new legislation that tries to dictate a woman's body and her reproductive rights. We should view this as the same outrageous overstep in authority," the Birmingham lawmaker wrote in a statement texted to The Associated Press.

Hollis said that doctors, and not legislators, are the ones to be consulted over surgery, medications and making the "incredibly difficult decisions" related to personal reproductive rights.

Alabama was one of several states that last year attempted to enact new abortion restrictions in the hopes of getting the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

Hollis' bill suggests the state require a man to get a vasectomy within one month of turning 50 or after the birth of his third child. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that forced sterilization is unconstitutional.

The worldwide death toll from COVID-19 has surpassed 400,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University that health experts say is still an undercount because many who died were not tested for the virus.